CNN's Cuomo to Santorum: 'Why Aren't You More Like Your Pope?'

CNN host Chris Cuomo said he wants to know one thing about Rick Santorum's views on LGBT issues: "Why aren't you more like your pope?"

"Your pope says tolerance is the message of Catholicism," Cuomo said on his "New Day" program to the former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate. "When asked about gay marriage and LGBT existence in humanity, he says 'Who am I to judge.' That doesn't work for you. You say you want an amendment that keeps marriage between a man and a woman. Why aren't you more like your pope?"

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On Monday, Santorum said he wanted a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman in all 50 states.

His comment came less than three weeks after the Supreme Court's landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and said he wants to define marriage "the way it was defined for 4,000 years of human history."

On Tuesday, Santorum said that he does not believe the pope supports a change in the definition of marriage, as "he's been perfectly clear about that," Santorum responded.

"We need to respect the dignity of all human life. We are all broken. We are all sinners. We all make mistakes. And we have to continue to love and support those who fall short of the mark, including me."

So instead, Santorum said, he believes Pope Francis "is simply stating something that is crystal clear in the Christian faith, which is to love the sinner and condemn the sin, but to stand for the truth of what the institution of marriage is."

Santorum further told Cuomo that he wants the amendment to strengthen the American family, a goal of his for years.

"If you look at my record I wrote a book 10 years ago called 'It Takes a Family,'" he told Cuomo. "I talked about this long before the debate on gay marriage started."

"I've talked about the breakdown of the family for 20 years," he said, including reducing the "out-of-wedlock birthrate" and "strengthening the institution of marriage so children have the best opportunity to rise in society. So I see the issue of gay marriage as really a continuation of the breakdown of marriage over a long period of time."

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